Dragons and Heart Strings
by Homunculus in the Flask
Summary: Team Natsu is on a mission to round up some "mountain bandits". When something unexpected happens, the team gets separated. With two members missing, will they all be able to get back to the guild in one piece? One thing's for sure: SOMETHING will definitely CHANGE. Fantasy, Adventure, Romance, Hurt/Comfort. Rated T for violence and profanity.
1. Prologue: UNDER CONSTRUCTION

**UPDATE: AS OF SEPTEMBER 28, 2013.**

**READ FIRST!**

**PLEASE BE INFORMED THAT THIS _STORY'S PROLOGUE AND CHAPTER 1 IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION_. THE PROLOGUE WILL BE ERASED (THAT IS THE PLAN) AND REPLACED WITH AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT PROLOGUE AND CHAPTER 1 WILL BE REWRITTEN TO HAVE A MORE CONSISTENT STORY. YOU MAY NOW PROCEED TO READ CHAPTER 2: SURPRISE ATTACK AND THE LATTER CHAPTERS SINCE PROLOGUE AND CHAPTER 1 ARE THE ONLY ONES UNDER CONSTRUCTION. THE NEW PROLOGUE AND EDITED CHAPTER 1 WILL BE UPLOADED BEFORE OR AT THE TIME WHEN CHAPTER 5:MAGIC AND POWERLESS WILL BE UPLOADED. SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE AND MY HUMBLEST APOLOGIES. (kneels down, hand on floor-dogeza)  
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**THE ONE BELOW IS THE STORY'S PROLOGUE BEFORE. THIS SCENE _MAY OR MAY NOT_ BE INCLUDED IN THIS STORY LATER ON. THERE IS ALSO A POSSIBILITY THAT I WILL COMPLETELY REMOVE THIS SCENE FROM _THIS_ STORY, AND USE IT FOR ANOTHER STORY.  
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**READ SCENE 1 AT YOUR OWN RISK!****IT _MIGHT_ INCLUDE SPOILERS! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!  
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**SCENE 1: Delete?_  
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Alternating gold and silver lights decorated the heavens, glowing and slowly falling down to earth like fairy dust. Another round of loud 'booms' were heard and more brightly-colored sparks of light flew up into the night sky. It was such a beautiful sight, a beautiful night. But amidst the merry chatter of people, the soft clip clop of wooden sandals worn by the men and women going around the shops, and the gasps of awe in appreciation of the fireworks display, a young blonde girl dressed in a beautiful pale blue flowery yukata stared across a spiky-haired boy in a dark blue kimono with tears brimming in her eyes.

She continued to stare at the young youth beaming at her, oblivious of the weight of the words he had just said. She opened her mouth to speak up, but hesitated. With a lot of effort, she pushed back the tears, put on her best smile as if nothing happened and said, "Yeah. That's right. We'll always be friends no matter what." After that, she grudgingly excused herself tired and hurriedly turned around to go as she felt the hot tears fall from her eyes.

The boy tried to call out to her but she already disappeared into the crowd. He scratched his head thinking that he forgot to tell her about their next mission. Turning around, he faced his blue flying cat and told him that now that they were all by themselves it was now time to go home.

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Alone in her apartment, the young blonde lay in her bed curled up into a ball, crying. Everything that happened that evening still burned in the back of her mind—going to the different shops, watching the fireworks until she finally plucked out the courage to tell him. But that silly grin that he had after hearing what she had said… At the thought, water pooled again in her eyes as she squeezed the pillow she was hugging and buried her face in it, muffling the sounds of an almost hysterical crying.

_Natsu you idiot!_

And with that, she cried herself to sleep.


	2. Chapter 1: Journey: UNDER CONSTRUCTION

**UPDATE: AS OF SEPTEMBER 28, 2013.**

**READ FIRST!**

******PLEASE BE INFORMED THAT THIS ****_STORY'S PROLOGUE AND CHAPTER 1 IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION_**.** THE PROLOGUE WILL BE ERASED (THAT IS THE PLAN) AND REPLACED WITH AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT PROLOGUE AND CHAPTER 1 WILL BE REWRITTEN TO HAVE A MORE CONSISTENT STORY. ****THE ONE BELOW IS THE STORY'S PROLOGUE BEFORE. ****THE CHAPTER BELOW IS THE UNEDITED CHAPTER 1. ****CHANGES WILL PROBABLY ONLY INCLUDE EXTRA DETAILS. **

**THIS CHAPTER******** DOESN'T CONTAIN ANY SPOILERS. ********YOU CAN READ IT NOW IF YOU WANT, BUT IT IS BEST THAT YOU START READING AT CHAPTER 2: SURPRISE ATTACK, THEN READ PROLOGUE AND CHAPTER LATER. PROLOGUE AND CHAPTER 1 WILL PROBABLY BE AVAILABLE BEFORE OR THE SAME TIME WHEN CHAPTER 5: MAGIC AND POWERLESS WILL BE UPLOADED. ****SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE AND MY HUMBLEST APOLOGIES. (kneels down, hand on floor-dogeza)**

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE: I did some touch-ups with this chapter and the next (chapter 2) because of some grammar problems and some scenes which I thought needed to be rewritten. Thank you so much to ****my beloved beta Catwho ironed out my horrible grammar. Please be sure to check out her stories and profile!****  
****I already finished the 3rd chapter for DHS (Dragons and Heart Strings). Hopefully, I will be posting a new chapter soon after it is edited. But for now, I will be replacing the published chapters with this edited ones, and maybe...just maybe, write the 4th while I'm still waiting. Thank you guys!  
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**So with that, here is the 1st Chapter of Dragons and Heart Strings. Enjoy!**

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_**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fairy Tail. I am just a big fan. Hiro Mashima is the rightful owner and creator of the manga [Fairy Tail].**_

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**Chapter 1: Journey**

Lucy sighed deeply as she stared out the window of the carriage, looking at the passing scenery as she rested her chin delicately on her hand. The summer festival in the town of Magnolia was about to take place in three days, and she was anxiously hoping to buy some souvenirs and view the famous fireworks rumored to rival the great spectacle of the rainbow Sakura. Instead, she was stuck here again with two loud, bickering bastards and a pushy female knight who had just dragged all of them with her on a mission to round up some notorious bandits hiding in the mountain ranges some good distance from the outskirts of Clover Town. She sighed again, thinking how she had just prepared a beautiful yukata and a pair of geta just for the occasion.

When she was young, she had always wanted to attend those festivals and participate in the different activities that were done there. However her father would always turn her request down, thinking that such activities and festivities of the "common folk" were highly inappropriate and not suited for the daughter of the rich and privileged Heartfilias.

She remembered how she would try to escape the large mansion by slipping out of the house using a long rope made of rags tied together and how the whole household would search frantically for her until she was finally found within less than a mile away from the property. Of course it was almost impossible to get away from her father's guards. Their property was way too damn big, stretching far beyond the mountains. And with checkpoints at almost every half a mile of the property, a mere little child would never be able to outrun or outsmart them.

_To think that I actually thought that maybe this time I could actually go there!, _Lucy thought to herself as she deeply sighed for the third time.

"Lucy!" Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted as a sharp pain shot across her cheeks as she realized that they were being stretched by the flying blue cat in front of her.

"OUCH! THAT HURT! What do you think you're doing Happy?!" She swatted the blue Exceed away and massaged her swollen cheeks. "What was that for? That seriously hurt!" she grumbled.

"But I called out to you many times and you still weren't responding, so I tried doing something else," Happy responded. Then narrowing his eyes with a snicker, "Lucy, you should go on a diet. Your cheeks are getting plumper. At this rate, if you get attacked during the mission I won't be able to save you because you're so heavy I won't be able lift you even for a second."

"Mind your own business Happy!" Lucy seethed angrily. "Aye!," cried the Exceed in response. After a while, Lucy turned around and asked, "So why were you calling me earlier?"

"We were just talking about the hoodlums that we're supposed to catch. After looking them up, it seems that they are not your ordinary mountain rats," Erza said handing over several wanted posters. Gray and even Natsu who was puking every now and then due to motion sickness, leaned close to Lucy to look at the posters.

"The Aufspieben Brothers?" Lucy read aloud. "Why does that last name sound familiar?"

"Ulrich and Klaus Aufspieben—they are known, or rather, are infamous for their choice of wealthy families as their targets and their brutal ways of shaming and torturing their victims to death after they have robbed them out of their riches," said Gray.

Lucy gasped. "Could it be...?" she trailed off. "But I thought they were long…dead?" she finished with a whisper.

Erza answered. "Apparently twenty years ago after their attempt to rob off a certain influential family in Fiore failed miserably and were apprehended by the Rune Knights, they were not exactly executed by the Magic Council. Despite the Aufspiebens' crimes and imminent threat, the Magic Council at that time thought it best to keep them alive and detain them in the Anti-Magic prison cells."

With this, Lucy's eyes widened. She was about to speak up but Erza held out a hand to stop her and continued. "According to some inside stories that I've heard, the brothers offered the Council a bargain which they could not refuse and in return, they were kept alive as prisoners. And so the fact that they were alive in prison was kept a secret, that is, until they had escaped prison and started rampaging again."

"So that explains why the Magic Council was the one who wanted the job done and why the reward is so high despite them being just a group of mountain bandits!" Everyone in the compartment looked up to see Natsu sitting up, unaffected by the travel as if Wendy cast Troia upon him. "The current Magic Council doesn't want the public to know their past blunders and that because of that miscalculation, they had just let one of the most dangerous villains out there on the loose!" Then with a laugh, he continued. "For a moment I thought that the Council must be losing their mind to offer such a large bounty! Buahahaha!"

Everyone in the compartment just stared at the dragon slayer. Despite his silly antics and laid back attitude, Natsu was actually shrewd. Everyone knew that. However, it was not that often that they would hear him contribute something helpful to the conversation.

"Correct," Erza nodded in agreement. "That is why for this mission, I need everyone to keep their guards up all the time and _**COOPERATE**_ in order to avoid any casualties. Understand?" She shot a dark look towards Natsu' and Gray's direction and the two nodded vigorously in unison. "Very well."

"Uh, Natsu?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah?"

"Did Wendy cast Troia on you before the journey? It seems you can handle traveling quite well now." With that comment, Natsu suddenly turned green around the gills, stuck his head outside the window of the carriage and started puking. "Or maybe not," Lucy laughed.

_Hmmm… Maybe going with these guys isn't so bad after all, _she thought to herself as she watched in amusement her pink-haired partner continued to be plagued with motion sickness. After a while the speakers rang out, announcing their arrival in Clover Town. As the train halted to a stop, Natsu slowly got up from his seat, deeply immersed into his thoughts.

_The Aufspieben brothers… For some reason I've got a bad feeling about them…_

But then, his thoughts were interrupted as Lucy called at him. "NATSU! Hurry up and get off the train or you'll be traveling all the way back to Magnolia for another trip!"

"Coming!" he shouted back enthusiastically, bearing his toothy grin as he jumped off carriage just in time before the train took off.

_Maybe I'm just over thinking things… Besides, I'll never let anyone of them come to harm, _he thought as he ran after the others.

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**Well guys, how was it? O_O I think this is much longer than the first (prologue)... What do you think about Natsu's gut feeling? Please tell me your comments and thoughts...  
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	3. Chapter 2: Surprise Attack

******AUTHOR'S NOTE: ****Hello again! This is HIF writing. **I did some touch-ups for this chapter and the previous one (Chapter 1) because of some iffy scenes (did you guys notice that?) and some grammar problems. Thank you so much to my beloved beta Catwho who ironed out my grammar and formatting! Yay! Please be sure to check her stories out! (If there are people here who could speak in German, please, if there is anything wrong with the German phrases..tell me.)

**I already finished Chapter 3 but it's still being edited so please give me some time to upload it...**

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**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fairy Tail nor any of its characters. I am just a big fan. Hiro Mashima is the rightful owner and creator of the manga [Fairy Tail].**

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**Chapter 2: Surprise Attack**

It was still very dark and the moon shone brightly overhead when the team set out into the mountains very early the next day to launch a surprise attack in the enemy's den. The path was thickly clouded with fog, making it very hard to navigate in the densely populated forest. Erza told the team to stick close together so that they would not get separated from each other and get lost in the dense fog. Every now and then, Lucy would lose her footing and trip because of the large protruding roots of the gigantic trees or somehow get entangled with the claw-like branches and vines in the way. Embarrassed at her "clumsiness" and not wanting to hinder the team's progress, she finally summoned Horologium, a celestial spirit that resembled an old grandfather clock, and hopped inside to take shelter while said spirit would continue on walking for her.

Whilst inside the safety of the spirit's hollow compartment, she got a good view of her surroundings and could not help but flinch at how the dense forest looked so creepy and haunted in the wee hours of morning. She shivered, thinking how the gigantic trees morbidly resembled people contorted and screaming in agony as if they were frozen into that state while they were struggling to fight some unknown foe.

"This place gives me the creeps. Somehow, I have a bad feeling about this," she said to no one in particular. Then she turned to the mage in the front who was leading the way. "Erza are you sure this-"

However she was cut off in mid-sentence by the female knight who suddenly came to a halt and held her hand across, blocking the others from behind from going any further. "Stop," she said in a low, hushed voice. "Did you hear something?"

"Eh? Not really...?" Lucy trailed off.

Everyone went quiet and listened intently to their surroundings. Aside from the perpetual hum of the cicadas which was now more hushed as they got deeper into the forest, the place was eerily quiet. Even though the sun's warm rays were now creeping in signaling the break of dawn, the unusually icy air actually got even colder, the forest remained dark and devoid of light and the drowsy witchy atmosphere still remained. A cold bead of dewdrop fell from one of the leaves of the trees overhead, making Lucy shriek in surprise which resulted to her receiving a sharp reprimanding glare from Erza.

Several minutes of eerie silence passed until Erza spoke up again. "This place is way too quiet," she said noting the sudden silence as the chirp of the cicadas totally died down. "Everyone be alert. If there is anything that is out of-" Her words were shortly cut off as they heard a menacing cackle rang throughout the forest.

"Who is there?!" Erza bellowed. The cackle just continued.

"___Willkommenfeen_…" a cold high-pitched voice hissed. Without warning, a surge of strong dark malicious aura hit them.

"What the-" Gray began, but before they could process what was happening, sharp daggers of excruciating pain stabbed every inch of their bodies from inside out making them all writhe in agony and paralyzed for several moments.

"Show yourself you cowardly bastard!" Erza roared angrily as she re-quipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armor once she regained control, ready to strike. But the high-pitched voice just cackled mirthlessly.

"_Seien Sie geduldig, liebe Feen… __Die Partei hatte gerade erst begonnen..."_

Suddenly, there came a loud rumble from below. The ground beneath their feet began to quake and crack. Luckily before the gap in the earth widened, all of them were able to jump off the other side where the ground was relatively more stable, then quickly dashed into the heart of the woods, desperate to escape. As they went deeper into the forest, a series of low drone-like chants broke out. Soon they reached a swampy area where the trees were a lot bigger and even creepier than the ones they've seen near the entrance. Here, even the light of the noon-time sun barely reached the forest floor.

"Something tells me this isn't the path to safety," said Lucy looking around doubtfully as she ran alongside the others. Her fears were confirmed when suddenly claw-like wooden branches lashed at them.

"Lucy, watch out!" cried Happy as the Exceed grabbed Lucy just in to time to dodge the tree's sudden attack.

"Thanks, Happy!" said Lucy thankfully.

"Lucy…You're heavy…" the Exceed groaned, suddenly dropping Lucy on the forest floor.

"Or no thanks," said the blonde gingerly as she patted her sore derriere which cushioned her fall.

"Everyone be careful! Something's wrong with this place," Natsu cried, bringing everyone's attention back to their surroundings. "This is…" Erza started. They watched in alarm as all around the rest of the gigantic trees that resembled like people swayed and sprang into life.

"Roar of the Fire dragon!" Natsu cried spewing red burning flames on the snarling trees enough to burn most of them into ashes. The other half of the platoon on the other hand, was frozen stiff by Gray.

"Good job Natsu! Gray!" said Lucy. However as soon as she said that, the chants grew louder and the ashes gathered and started reconstructing themselves again into trees. Worse, the reconstructed trees were no longer rooted to the ground. Those that were left intact after Natsu' and Gray's attacks were now pulling their roots off the ground. Again and again the fire and the ice mage burned and froze platoon after platoon, not leaving a single tree in sight standing. But every time they would try to do some damage, the chants would just grow louder, the trees would reconstruct and exponentially multiply even faster.

"Damn! Seems like we can't get past these guys that easily," said Natsu after some time.

"Wanna have a contest on who gets to finish first Flame Brain?" taunted Gray.

"Guys, be serious okay? At this rate, we'll be surrounded by these weird creepy things," Lucy reprimanded, a bit panicky.

"Okay fine," replied Natsu loftily.

Soon enough, Lucy's warning came true. With the trees' increasingly quicker reconstruction and multiplication rate, the group soon found themselves surrounded and cornered by a very large army of giant wooden walking morbidity.

"Damn it! Is there no end to all of them?!" swore Gray catching his breath using Freeze to immobilize the ever increasing wooden army and at least buy them some time to recover.

"This is ridiculous! They just keep on coming! At this rate we might run out of magic and we still haven't faced the ring leaders of it yet!" cried Lucy in exasperation waving Taurus' key and summoning him to help cut up the annoying trees. She and Erza had eventually joined in to help Natsu and Gray fend off the trees. Annihilating them proved to be a difficult feat because now everyone in the team, even Erza who rarely got so worked up by mere "small-fries", were now growing tired of fighting the endless numbers coming their way.

"They must have some weakness so we can defeat them once and for all," Erza said, a trickle of sweat now visible on her forehead.

"Some kind of weakness…?" Lucy thought aloud. She recalled how the trees would attack them—lash, swat and skewer. All of their moves utilized the upper half of the trees. So far, the trees haven't used their roots at all even if they had them purposely uprooted. She observed that the uprooted roots' only purpose was a way for the trees to move around and follow them. Other than that, when the trees would try to attack them, she noticed that the roots would penetrate the ground for a brief moment before attacking as if to anchor the trees so that they would stay upright.

The roots… They haven't done any damage to the roots yet. Erza and Taurus would just cut the trees into tiny pieces. Gray would freeze the trees whole. Even Natsu's fire only burned the upper half of the trees. Could it be...?

"Lucy, behind you!" Natsu shouted. Apparently, she had been so lost into her thoughts that she hadn't noticed a sneak attack coming from behind. Immediately Lucy tried to dodge, but not fast enough as sharp, spear-like claws dug into the flesh of her sides. She cringed in pain as the pointed branches pulled out of her and fell on the forest floor kneeling with her hands on her stab wound.

"Lucy!" cried Natsu after the blonde again. The tree's attack looked like it did a lot of damage and his partner was now bleeding a lot. "Are you okay?" He asked with his voice full of concern as he knelt beside the girl.

Lucy nodded at Natsu and weakly smiled. Had it not been for Natsu's warning, she would probably be breathing her last by now. Those claws were sharper than they looked, with the "graze" that she had, it was difficult to imagine how she would have survived if they had hit her whole. But despite the damage she had just received and the pain she was now experiencing, Lucy rejoiced inwardly. She just found out the monsters' weakness!

"Don't worry about me. I'm alright. More importantly, everyone focus on destroying the roots. The roots are the trees' weakness!" cried Lucy.

"I see…" Erza nodded. "So we just have to destroy the roots right?" In a flash, she requipped into her Morning Star Armor.

"Somehow, I have a bad feeling about this," said Gray nervously.

Erza launched herself in the air and twirled, brandishing her swords at the trees surrounding them. "Photon Slicer!" Instinctively, everyone ducked as a huge circular blast emanated from the requip mage, destroying everything in sight.

"Oy! Oy! Don't overdo it!" Gray pointed out. But Erza was not yet finished. Immediately, she requipped again—this time she wore the Purgatory Armor. "What the-?!" Gray exclaimed. Erza pulverized the ground with one powerful blow, destroying the rest of the stubborn trees' roots with it.

Gray sighed. "I told you to not overdo it," he said pointing to the huge crater Erza left behind where the swamp once was, not to mention the half-destroyed forest. "Master will not be happy with this. The Magic Council will surely be at our necks again."

"Gah! I can't believe that we were having a hard time on them earlier when they are actually 'small fries'," Natsu huffed. "Mind you, I could've finished it on my own if only Erza would let me be."

"Yeah right Flame Brain," said Gray, sarcasm laced in his voice.

"You want a fight, Ice Princess?!" growled Natsu.

"Now, now. Calm down guys. At least we've had them taken care of now," Lucy laughed nervously.

"And that's all because Lucy figured out what their weakness is," Erza smiled at Lucy as she helped her up on her feet.

"I didn't do anything really…" Lucy blushed at Erza's comment. It was a very rare occasion for the great Titania to praise someone, even more praise _her_.

_Don't let it get to your head Lucy! Erza was just being modest!_ Lucy mentally scolded herself. Pushing the thoughts aside she shook her head and said, "So what are we waiting for? Let's find those brothers and be finished with this mission!"

Just then, a familiar menacing cackle rang throughout the forest, stopping them on their tracks. Lucy's eyes widened in fear. _Oh dear! Don't tell me…_

_"__Intelligentes mädchen. You figured out the driftwood army's weakness..."_ the voice hissed.

"Natsu, it can speak in English!" Happy cried in surprise.

The voice continued. "_But do not think that this is going to be over any time soon. The real party has just begun..."_

Once again, a low drone of chants was heard throughout the forest. For some reason, the air around them became thinner, their bodies felt heavier and the temperature got warmer. Or was it hotter? A few moments later, they found themselves sinking in the loose, gritty soil which felt like sand. Sand!? But this is the swamp! If there is anything they should sink in, it should be mud, not dry and gritty like this!Bewildered, they looked around them and found themselves in the desert!

"Since when did we get transported?" Lucy asked bewildered.

Her question was left unanswered. Instead, huge sphinx-like creatures the size of giant mammoths materialized out of the thin air. They looked a lot stronger than the trees that they've faced before. Lucy felt tremors as the monsters sauntered towards them. Their mere weight shook the ground even though it was loose sand. But what got her worried was the nasty, green liquid that was dripping down the sphinxes' jaws. She gulped as she watched the noxious liquid fall into a blob and quickly evaporating the sand, creating a big hole in its place. Forget about getting bitten to death with those sharp canines. She was sure that she was going to disintegrate faster than the sand upon contact with these monsters' saliva!

"Oy, you got to be kidding me…" Gray said aghast. "I know we're pretty popular but we don't exactly like our fans looking at us _that _way."

"Hey, don't these guys look a lot like those monsters you've defeated in the grand magic games?" smirked Natsu.

"It couldn't be… The monsters I've fought there were far more classy," said Erza while brandishing her swords, ready to fight.

Lucy couldn't believe her ears. She felt pretty worn out now because of fending off the trees and was pretty sure that her teammates had also used up most of their magic earlier. Or did they? She gaped at her teammates in disbelief for several moments before coming to her senses. Then she shook her head and sighed.

_Lucy, you shouldn't think about these things! If they can handle it so can you! I can't be weak anymore… I have to be strong…for my friends!_ She thought desperately.

"Gate of the Golden Bull, I open thee! Taurus! Gate of the Scorpion, I open thee! Scorpio!" she cried summoning Scorpio and Taurus at the same time. "Taurus, use Scorpio's sand!"

"Moo! Perfect!" said Taurus. "Absorb!" Taurus held the axe over his shoulder, absorbing Scorpio's sand. Then leaping at the sphinxes, he cried, "Sandstorm Axe Aldebaran!", swinging the axe down with a forceful crash, hurtling powerful torrents of sand against the four-legged monsters and successfully bringing them all down.

Gray whistled. Natsu chuckled, "Whoa! Someone's all fired up!"

Lucy grinned and cocked her head."Hey, you guys. You do know that this fight isn't going to be easy right? At least help us find these monsters' weakness."

"Aye Sir!" said Natsu enthusiastically as he punched several sphinxes with fire, sending them out flying while Erza and Gray took off the rest. As expected, the sphinxes got back on their feet in no time. Even more, their numbers increased as with the case of the trees and their attacks went faster and more aggressive. To top it all off, the loose sand made it harder for them to attack and dodge at the same time.

Natsu brushed a bead of sweat that was forming in his brow as he prepared to launch another attack. He knew they needed to find the monsters' weakness fast. He knew that at this rate, they would seriously run out of magic before they would be able to face their real targets. And besides, he was getting worried about _her. _He watched his partner as she fought off the sphinxes and felt a wave of worry sweep over him. He saw how nasty her wounds were and was sure that she was really not in the best condition to fight.

_Lucy… Just hang in there…_ He thought as he knocked out several sphinxes at once.

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Meanwhile, not far from where the group was currently fighting, there watched two men.

"Aniue*…" spoke the younger of the two. "That girl… She looks…" he trailed off.

The older one just snickered mirthlessly and then said, "At last!" A wicked smile formed in his lips as he eyed a particular golden haired mage battle it out with the monsters he summoned. "I found you at last… Adhra." He sneered as he burst out in a low manic laughter.

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**Translation Notes:**

***Aniue** is an archaic term for elder brother in japanese. It also implies that the speaker has great respect for the person addressed.

**Willkommenfeen- **Welcome fairies

**Seien Sie geduldig, liebe Feen-** Be patient, my dear fairies

** Die Partei hatte gerade erst begonnen- **The party had just begun

**Intelligentes mädchen- **Intelligent girl

**So I edited a few lines from CH1 to CH2 'coz after rereading it after sometime, some moments feel iffy?... When I imagine and test-run the scenes in my mind, they usually speak in Japanese so somehow it's hard to translate some of the words/phrases/expressions that come to my mind. But anyway, I refuse to just write it in Jap-Lish or use Japanese words as much as possible. Besides, I'm not sure if some of the pips here are very fluent in Japanese. **

**Note 2: **The scene that I actually imagine during this part "'Okay fine', Natsu said loftily." is: **"Hai, hai... Wakarimashitta..." Natsu said loftily.**

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**So what do you think? :) I sure feel sorry for Lucy... Not only was she stabbed and hurt, but she and the team looks like they're having such a hard time.**** And, who's Adhra? That Aniue guy there seems a lot like a pervert... hahaha... **

**Please, please, please... Rate and review please? :3 Any kind of comment is welcome. Flames will be served as Natsu's grub. He'd surely love a recharge**** after all the magic that he'd used up. :) I swear thing's will get a lot more exciting after this!**

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**UP NEXT: Chapter 3- Pitch Black**


	4. Chapter 3: Pitch Black

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT own Fairy Tail nor any of its characters, Hiro Mashima does. If there is anything, the AUFSPIEBEN BROTHERS are the ONLY characters that I do own (so far).  
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******AUTHOR'S NOTE:  
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******First of all, SORRY FOR THE VERY LATE UPDATE! I'm not one of those talented writers who update regularly and can write so beautifully. Thank you so much to my wonderful beta Catwho who corrected my mistakes yet again! Let's give her a hand! Gosh, she is so nice!**

******As mentioned above, the Aufspieben brothers are my original characters so if there are any of you who doesn't like reading stories with OCs, I'm really s****orry, but for this story I really needed some villains. I did not feel like using any of the characters to do the part of the antagonists and ************I'm not updated in the manga so if there are new characters that were not shown in the anime, I couldn't possibly know them and use them for this. And from the characters that I DO KNOW, **I do not think that they would qualify as the antagonists that I envision. 

******If some of you would notice, I rewrote some of the conversations in CH1 and CH2 for purposes of calming the nagging feeling of having some of the characters go way out of character. Nothing major really, though I did rewrite the summary again to a more arc-specific summary. I sure hope it feels better now!**

**********Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. :) Presenting the 3rd chapter of DHS: PITCH BLACK!**

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**Chapter 3: Pitch Black**

"KYAAAHHH!"

The sudden yelp brought everyone's attention to the blonde celestial mage who was now sinking fast in the sand. All of them had been busy fighting and figuring out the monsters' weakness that they probably would not have noticed what was happening to the blonde mage had she not made a sound. Everyone would, except perhaps Natsu.

"LUCY!" he cried as he dashed as fast as he could towards her, his outstretched arms reaching for the girl. She was rapidly sinking into the deep sand pit; her body was already halfway submerged in the sand leaving her torso the only part visible. At the bottom of the pit and directly below her sinking form, an intricate magic circle like he'd never seen before glowed suspiciously. Without a second thought, Natsu immediately threw himself at the edge of the pit and leaned as far as he could to the center of it reaching down to Lucy as far as he could stretch.

"Just a little bit more…." Natsu panted trying as best as he could to reach down further, his arm stretched as far as he could, his fingers barely touching Lucy's. His joints groaned from the long stretch but he didn't mind. The only thing that mattered right now was to save Lucy. With a final groan, he finally managed to capture Lucy's hand into his and felt a wave of relief sweep over him. But the relief was very short-lived.

Within a matter of split seconds, he heard Erza and Gray's panicked shouts from behind as a huge shadow fell upon them and the next thing knew he was sent flying away from the pit, his firm grasp wrenched away from Lucy's hand. A high-pitched scream from the pit drained the color from Natsu's face as it dawned on him that he was no longer holding Lucy's hand. He quickly sprinted towards the pit faster than anyone could have believe possible, his limbs soaring over the dunes and feet almost barely touching the sand, and skidded to the edge of the pit where he saw his partner, or rather the blonde head of his partner quickly being swallowed by the sand. Without a tiny bit of hesitation, Natsu hurtled himself to the center of the sandy hole with both hands outstretched.

_"LUCYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"_

* * *

The anguished scream kept ringing in her ears like a bad dream as she slowly gained consciousness. _What…just happened?..._ Lucy thought slowly. Her memory was a little foggy as she tried to recollect the past events but the sudden painful throb in her temple prevented her from pursuing the thought further. Sighing, she wondered where she was as she felt a foreign sensation creep over her. Cold and damp were the first two familiar things she realized.

Despite having her eyes tightly closed, something told her that she was in an unknown place and that somehow, she felt herself floating in midair. Despite the chilly cold, several drops of warmth trickled down her skin which for some unknown reason made her relax a little bit as she felt energy and strength flood through her. Slowly, she opened her eyes and had her speculations immediately confirmed as she stared at the sight in front of her. One, she is indeed floating on midair. Two, she didn't really know where she was and if such a place really existed. She gaped wide-eyed in awe at the beauty of the seemingly endless black before her that was littered with beautiful, crystal-like, water droplets of different sizes falling down in slow motion.

_So beautiful!_ She gasped as she admired the scene in front of her. A large water droplet slowly fell in front of her. An image briefly flashed across her mind's eye but it was gone before she could barely register what it was. The familiar feeling that she had possibly forgotten something important since she slowly gained consciousness kept bugging her. But then again when she was about to reach some sort of conclusion, the painful migraine struck her as if someone had made it their business to drive a large screw into her skull every time she was about to figure something out. She pressed her both hands to her temple and tugged at the hair near her scalp as she mentally scolded herself what was wrong with her. She broke out of her internal struggle when a silvery wisp of breath lightly brushed against her cheek.

"_Leave…_" said a voice that echoed from the recesses of the endless black. Though the message was clear that she was not wanted in that place where she was, the soft and gentle manner with which the voice spoke to her told her that it was not because of distaste or spite. It felt like a warning.

"_Hurry and leave…"_ the voice repeated.

Though Lucy knew that the voice was probably warning her of something, she could not help but ask. "Why? And…how?" She looked around the endless black and tried to imagine how she could possibly leave the place.

Instead the voice answered, "_The path you seek is the one that is yet to be revealed. Beware of the soulless man with amber eyes…"_

"Huh? I don't understand… What do you mean by-?" Lucy trailed off as her vision slowly blurred. She was slowly falling. Inexplicable panic and fear gripped her the moment she felt herself swirling downwards. A powerful force suddenly hit her from nowhere and knocked the air out of her lungs. As her consciousness slowly ebbed away, she felt herself being sucked in an invisible black hole and a familiar face briefly flashed in her mind. _Who...? _She wondered as her remaining strength left her.

"_The path you seek is the one that is yet to be revealed. Beware of the soulless man with amber eyes…"_ The voice's words echoed in her ears just before the deep blackness enveloped her.

* * *

Back at the sandy dunes, two mages stood around the edge of a deep pit while a blue exceed hovered above them.

No one would be able to believe that the great Titania could possess such an expression. Erza's face was chalk white with shock as she stared down at the bottom of the sand pit where the celestial mage had once been. She had been careless and had let two of her precious nakama disappear in front of her. Had she been able to stop that damned giant cat…No, had she not been so weak, then she would've been able to finish all of those monsters at once. Then perhaps Natsu would be able to pull Lucy out of the pit and they both would not have disappeared.

She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth as she recalled the last few moments before the two mages disappeared before their eyes.

_-o-o-o-_

_She and Gray were left to deal with the sphinxes while Natsu pulled celestial mage out of the pit. But when dealing with the monsters proved to be a feat when you're only four, handling them with two proved to be more than a handful. When she thought that she had the situation under control, a sphinx leapt past her and sprang towards the fire mage._

_"DAMNIT! Natsu, behind you!" she shouted to the pink-haired mage who had Lucy finally in his grasp and was now trying to pull her out from the pit. _

_The mage barely had time to turn his head before an enormous paw clawed at his flesh and effectively swatted him to the side, away from the pit. When she heard the scream, her face turned livid with anger. But it was not until when she discovered that both Natsu and Lucy were missing, had she finally lost it. _

_"Gray, Happy stand back," she growled, her voice shaking in anger. _

_"Oy, what are you going to do?" Gray started but stopped when he met Erza's darkened face. "Okay," he sighed in defeat. Erza knew that the others perfectly knew that it was no use arguing with her at that point. Quickly, he and Happy distanced themselves from the requip mage as far as they could. Things would get pretty ugly._

_Still shaking with maddening rage, Titania immediately requipped into her Black Wing armor and flew high into the air. "How dare you…" she seethed at the sphinxes that all followed her into the air. "…ENDANGER THE LIVES OF MY NAKAMA!" she roared as she struck all of the sphinxes with powerful lightning using the Lightning Empress' long spear. In a split second, she immediately changed weapons, brandished the Flame Empress' sword at her opponents and shot a large torrent of flames at them. She then landed smoothly on the sandy dunes as the sphinxes' bodies slowly disintegrated into fine sand as Gray and Happy once again joined her._

_-o-o-o-_

"Erza?" the Happy suddenly asked, pulling her out of her thoughts.

She forcefully struck her sword to the ground and cursed, alarming the blue exceed and earning her an exasperated sigh from the scantily-clad ice mage standing beside her. He put a hand on top of her shoulder and offered an assuring grin. "Don't worry. Those two will be able to handle themselves," Gray assured her. With these words, Erza's form slowly relaxed. She sighed and grinned back at him, "I guess you're right". Then motioning the other two to follow her she enthusiastically said, "What are you guys waiting for? Let's go find those two and be finished with this mission!"

"Aye sir!" Happy cried raising one paw up while a sheepish Gray followed suit.

_Geez… These guys are troublesome,_ the ice mage thought as he sighed for the second time. Despite his actions towards the disappearance of the two, he was actually very worried for them. They were his guildmates and nakama after all. And though he fought and bickered with Natsu often, he still cared for the flame brained idiot although his pride wouldn't allow him to admit it out loud.

It took a lot of effort for him to stamp down the urge to curse out loud. Like Erza, he thought that he too was to be blamed for letting the two disappear out of their sight. If he were a more competent ice mage, then his ice make magic would be more effective even in the hot, arid setting. He immediately scowled and a large vein popped in his forehead at the thought of Lyon Vastia, another disciple of Ul, looking down on him for being "incompetent". Nevertheless, it seemed worth it when he had to act unruffled and normal in front of Erza. Thanks to that, they would not be crying over spilled milk for a long time. He knew that with both of them distracted, the enemy would surely take advantage of the situation.

There was one catch though. Something about this mission bugged him. Something was definitely out of place but he couldn't quite place his finger on it. Aside from that, he could not help but notice how the blonde celestial mage would often get herself into tough situations and be the constant unfortunate target of the attacks. The last incident involving the sand pit was particularly obvious. It was as if in the very beginning, she had been chosen as a target.

Gray shook the thoughts off his head and tried to think positively. He knew that it could also be a possibility that the enemy was playing with them to have them let their guard down.

_It couldn't be it…Right?_

* * *

Meanwhile back at the guild, the atmosphere in Fairy Tail was noisy and boisterous as usual. Cana was at the counter chugging down a large barrel of beer. Macao and Wakaba were arguing in a corner. Nab was still standing in front of the request board but still wouldn't pick any job. And Juvia was wailing about her precious Gray-sama not taking her with them on the mission. Basically, it was like any normal day at the guild. There were familiar clink of glasses and the usual brawls here and there. Suddenly, the guild's front doors burst open and a short, old man came into view. Makarov Dreyar, the guild's former third, and now sixth and current master, was huffing as he stood by the guild's front doors. His face was paler than a ghost.

The white-haired barmaid immediately noticed their guild master's arrival and cheerily greeted him, "You're back Master! How did the trip to the Council go…?" She stopped, noticing old man's expression she asked, "Master, is something wrong?"

At the question, Makarov's knuckles went white but said nothing. Mirajane frowned. She had a bad feeling about this. "Master?" she asked again.

"They got us…" the guild master slowly said under his breath, his voice clearly shaking in anger. Immediately, the noise in the guild ceased. Nobody dared to speak up sometime until Gajeel blurted out, "You don't mean…?"

Makarov's face was livid when he finally lost it. "DAMN THOSE FOOLS!" Slowly, his eyes glowed as his frame grew larger. "IF THEY EVER TRY TO HURT A MEMBER OF THIS GUILD, THEY WILL FACE THE FULL WRATH OF FAIRY TAIL!" he boomed angrily as the rest of the guild roared in agreement.

* * *

The feeling of immense pain was the only thing that Lucy felt when she finally regained her consciousness. Slowly, she dragged herself to a sitting position and surveyed her surroundings. The thick, moldy stone walls around her and the vertical bars to her left that sealed the enclosure told her that she was probably in some sort of an old prison cell. A single torch lit the whole floor from a distance. The place smelled strongly of urine and human waste and Lucy,feeling nauseous, resisted the strong urge to vomit. Suddenly, the pain she felt sharpened almost immediately and caught her off guard that she could not help but scream. It was as if thousands of invisible needles were forcefully stabbed deep into every inch of her body.

Involuntarily, she twitched when she heard a low cackle. Immediately, she turned her head to the left where she had heard the sound. There in front of the prison cell now stood two tall hooded figures. Lucy gasped as one of the hooded figures passed through the rusty but otherwise rigid metal bars with ease. She backed down against the wall ignoring the pain that coursed through her body as the figure approached her. She didn't know, but for some reason, she felt an inexplicable great amount of fear towards the approaching figure.

Without warning, she felt herself gasp for air as a pair of hands wrapped themselves tightly around her neck and tried to choke her. As the figure came close to her, its hood fell a little, enough to reveal the face of a young man. Lucy's eyes widened in horror as she remembered the strange voice's warning. Despite the dim light of the torch that flickered from the distance, for some reason she could clearly see a pair of striking amber eyes full of malice stare back at hers.

Lucy shivered uncontrollably as his face went dangerously close to hers. Their noses were almost touching and she felt the man's hot breath on her skin. His lips slowly curled upwards in an evil grin before whispering seductively in her ear.

"_At last…You're mine…_"

* * *

**To be honest, I'm rather nervous about this chapter and it took some time to finally settle with this one 'coz it will pretty much have a big impact on the next chapter. Though having this posted, will probably make things final, if not semi-final. Sorry for the late updates and for having a cliff hanger in almost every chapter. If I were a better and faster writer, I would want to finish it up earlier but I just couldn't.**

******Ok. HOW WAS IT? O_o Please tell me what you think (before I get any more crazier ideas). ANY COMMENT WOULD SUFFICE (as long as you don't post something like "F**k y**!" "Die!" blablabla and that's it)**


	5. Chapter 4: Salamander's Whereabouts

**DISCLAIMER: ****I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters. Hiro Mashima does. If I did, it'll be something like this fic or maybe something else.. For a list of characters I DO OWN, please refer to the A/N at the bottom (not below) of this page.  
**

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: ****Hello Guys! It's been a while isn't it? I'm really really sorry for not updating for so long. As always, thank you so so soooo much to my dear beta** **Catwho**** who always boosts up my confidence in writing this story. I would also like to thank JcL107 for being the first one to review this story and for encouraging me to write what I want. And of course to the increasing readers, followers and those who favorite-ed this fic. Thank you guys so so so much! **

**Anyway, aside from the usual (busy with life, papers, work and some events here and there (I'm part of the organizing team, and no-it's not a party party stuff)), I've had troubles with setting up the next few chapters, this included, because they're very related and any developments from the last chapter onwards will pretty much affect what will happen in the near and far future. ;) There. Some teasers.. haha! If you have questions about this chapter, something's not clear to you, or whatever, you can comment on it by posting a review (in fanfictionDOTnet, review=comment more or less) or you can send me a pm. More details, translation notes and additional author's notes at the end; but for now, sit back, enjoy and be... "O.O"-whatever that may be! Here's Chapter 4 of Dragons and Heart Strings: SALAMANDER'S WHEREABOUTS...**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Salamander's Whereabouts**

_"LUUUUUUCCCCCCCYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"_

Despite the darkness that slowly engulfed the both of them, he yelled her name repeatedly at the top of his lungs hoping to wake her up as he struggled to reach out for the unconscious blonde figure that floated in front of him. Instead, the distance between them grew wider and he soon felt himself plummeting into the endless darkness, the figure in front of him fading out of sight. After what seemed an eternity of falling down into the dark recesses, he felt himself crash painfully with a thud. As he felt his consciousness slowly slip away, he heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

"Got to save…Lu-" he managed to choke out until his head dropped and eyelids closed.

And then darkness prevailed once again.

* * *

The harsh rays of the noontime sun beat down their backs as Erza, Gray and Happy loitered around the dunes, looking around as to where Lucy and Natsu could have disappeared to. It was already past midday and without any luck, they still hadn't got a clue about their missing teammates' whereabouts. After spending several hours of scouring the skies, Happy flew down towards Erza with a worried face.

"Found anything?" the scarlet-haired mage asked somewhat hopeful. The blue exceed shook his head sadly. The female knight sighed. She knew that they would to try harder to find them. Catching a glimpse of the Exceed whose face was still etched with a deep frown, she asked. "What's the matter Happy?"

Happy continued to frown. His face was cast down wearing an expression that was a complete opposite of his name as he stood in deep thought. Slowly he said, "It's weird…" The scarlet-haired mage's eyebrows arched at the cat's ambiguous answer, but then he continued. "I was wondering why it seemed so hard to fly earlier."

It was Erza's turn to frown. "What do you mean by that?"

The Exceed slumped his shoulders while looking down. "When we fought those weird creepy-looking trees, I had some difficulty controlling Aera. It happened during those *bakeneko too. I thought it might be because there were just too many of them to be able to dodge all of their attacks and because I've used a lot of my magic during the previous fight with those creepy trees. But it doesn't seem to be the case when I flew up in search for Natsu and Lucy just now..." Finally lifting his head up, he looked at Erza, confusion and worry evident in his expression and continued. "I mean, isn't it strange to just feel lighter and control my magic better after this when just moments ago I was struggling with my magic while fighting with those monsters?"

Erza blinked at his words. Now that Happy had mentioned it, indeed a while ago she too had experienced the same things during the battle with the driftwood army and sphinxes. For some reason during the battle, wearing her armor felt a lot heavier and wore her out more than it used to. She also noticed that it took a lot more time to recover her magic after an attack.

A scowl was visibly etched in her features as she looked at the cat. "Now that you mentioned it, indeed I'm feeling a lot better now than earlier," she said examining her forearm and flexing her fingers. "Somehow it was as if something was preventing me from using my magic earlier. I had the feeling that I was being held back," commented the female knight as she crossed her arms in her chest as she pondered the thought.

It was strange. Why hadn't she realized those things earlier? Was she so occupied in fighting with the beasts that she had barely noticed the strange changes that happened around her? No. It doesn't seem like it. There had to be another reason. But what?

"Hey guys! You should come over here! I think I just found something…"

Erza's train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the arrival of Gray, who came to them panting. "What is it?" the scarlet-haired mage turned and asked.

Gray just shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I'm not so sure myself. Anyway, just come with me and you'll soon find out what I mean."

* * *

"Let me see! Let me see!"

"Idiot! We'll be damned if the old hag sees us!"

They suddenly froze when they heard a grunt. The figure lying on the bed in front of them began to move.

"Shhhh! Be quiet! He's waking up…" one voice hissed quietly to the other.

With eyes still shut, the stranger tossed and turned in bed. He groaned at the sound of the hushed voices that slowly penetrated his consciousness, pulling him away from his deep slumber. He heard the scuffle of feet on the floor as he finally stirred into consciousness. Natsu slowly opened his eyes to find himself lying in bed inside a dark room that is only illuminated by a sole flicker of a candle light. He staggered a few times while attempting to get up in bed and a painful migraine struck him.

"Good evening," a raspy old voice croaked near the direction of the candle light.

Natsu blinked a few times to focus his vision. As his vision cleared, he saw a hunched old woman near the doorway holding a single tall candle which illuminated the whole dark room. The elderly woman smiled at him and before he could say anything, the woman spoke.

"You alright dear?" she asked him kindly as she slowly approached his bedside, placing the candlestick on a small table beside the bed. Natsu shook his head. The mighty headache still throbbed painfully like hell. And it seemed as if he was forgetting something awfully important. Instinctively, he immediately shot up from bed and bolted towards the door but the old woman blocked his way and surprisingly dragged him back to the bed.

"Oh no you don't dearie. You have yet to recuperate from your wounds. I found you lying unconscious and almost half dead at the bottom of the cliff earlier and I'm not about to let you get yourself in another mess after all the pains of dragging your sweet arse right here and nursing you back to health! With those wounds I'm surprised you could even move!" the old woman cried in annoyance.

Natsu flinched in surprise. He never knew anyone that old could be so energetic and noisy, let alone have the guts to tell him off or strength to drag him around. A small chuckle escaped him. She almost reminded him of Porly… Huh? Who?... He snapped from his trance as if the name got stuck at the tip of his tongue. At the same time, the pain that assaulted his head immediately intensified while he tried to figure out the name that was stuck at the back of his mind.

"ACCCCKKKKKKK!" Natsu groaned as he pressed his fingers on the sides of his temple and tried to massage the migraine off. It really felt as if the pain were about to blow his head off.

"Hmmm… Forced Amnesia huh? Haven't seen that in a while," noted the elderly woman as she surveyed him from the bed.

Natsu cocked his head up, his fingers still pressed against his head, and stared at her in confusion. The kind elderly hesitated for a moment but then continued. "Let's just say it is a condition that befalls on foreigners like you who are unfortunate enough to get transported into this...land."

The young lad could not help but furrow his brows in confusion. Forced amnesia? Well, judging from the word 'amnesia', that would explain why he can't remember a lot of things. But what had she meant when she said that he was a 'foreigner'? And what did she mean by saying that he was transported here, wherever this 'land' may be? Well, there is only one way to find out.

"What do you mean? What did you mean by saying that I am a '_foreigner' _and _where_ exactly is _this place_?"

Whatever the case was, he could tell from the old woman's actions that she was still debating whether to tell him or not. It almost seemed as if disclosing their current location was not a very good idea for the woman. She glanced around them nervously for a few moments before heaving a deep sigh. Then leaning closer to him, she replied in a very low voice. "This is not really a _place_. I'm afraid to tell you my boy that we are in fact in another dimension."

* * *

The scarlet-haired mage frowned at the raven-haired mage beside him as she crossed her arms across her chest. Hovering above them was a blue exceed who had an expression almost similar to the requip mage.

"And this is…?" Erza asked pointedly at Gray who earlier claimed to have found something.

The ice mage scratched his head uncomfortably. "I told you it's just right here. You're actually looking right at it!"

The female knight scowled and continued to glare at him. He sighed and pointed to a spot directly in front of them. Erza raised an eyebrow.

"I can only see you pointing at the desert."

With a sigh of defeat, the raven-haired mage hesitantly grabbed the oblivious woman's wrist and pulled her hand towards the direction he was pointing earlier. Erza was about to jab him hard in the ribs with her elbow for his actions but stopped when she suddenly felt something. For a second, she felt the tip of her fingers push past something thick and fluid. She turned her head sharply only to find her herself facing the desert once again. Her scowl deepened. She brought her hand forward again, this time slowly sweeping past the certain spot where she felt the weird sensation. Her eyes widened as she confirmed her suspicions. She turned to look at Gray who stared back at her with one eyebrow raised and hands tucked across his chest.

"Well?" he asked as he gave her an I-told-you-so-but-you-just-won't-believe-me look. Erza sighed but ignored his question. "So what is this?" she asked coolly.

"I told you before that I'm not really sure. But if my hunch is correct, this thing might actually be a portal that will get us out of here. I have a feeling that whatever this thing is, it could possibly help us find Lucy and Natsu."

"And how do you suggest we do it?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Easy. We pass through it," he said with a smirk.

* * *

"We're in another dimension?" Natsu asked with eyes wide in disbelief.

The old woman nodded. Suddenly, a huge goofy grin spread into Natsu's face. "COOL!" he exclaimed. "Are there monsters here? Are they strong? I want to fight them!" He immediately got out of bed and dashed to the door until a fist collided painfully to his head, sending him back to the bed with a crash. "Ouch! What was that for!?" he hissed angrily.

The old woman huffed angrily, a vein popping her forehead. "You idiot! I told you that you still need to recuperate from those wounds! You need rest! Plenty of it!"

"But I-" Natsu began to argue but the woman shoved him back to the bed.

"No buts, no ifs," she snapped.

"Look Granny. I know I owe you a lot and thanks for saving me, but I've got to save-"

Immediately, Natsu's head crashed into the wall as another punch found its way to his stubborn skull. "Do not call me 'Granny'! I am still young! Just 541 years old!" she screeched. "I'm sorry, but whoever that is, he or she needs to manage on his or her own. You yourself are damaged pretty badly and mind you, you would've been a goner had I not found you sooner. Most ribs broken, a bloody gash in the head, bruises all over your body, and several stab wounds and bite marks that barely missed your vital organs—you're damn lucky that the poison from those sphinxes hadn't reached your brain yet, otherwise you'll be gurgling blood by now before you can say 'magic'."

Seeing the burning glare the boy gave her, she sighed in defeat. "Okay, fine. You may go…" she immediately pulled him back by the scarf and dragged him back to bed as he once again tried to escape through the door. "…BUT, you must first rest a few hours until your magic had been recovered." He groaned loudly after hearing this but the woman shot him a look telling him that that was final. She then continued, "Your magic is dwindling dangerously low and even without the monsters that prowl about outside, any unnecessary use of your magic could lead to your death."

"WHAT!?" he cried.

"I could barely feel magic within you. It's very weak. You need some time to at least recover it." Noticing that his expression was unchanged, she asked, "What?"

"I have…magic?"

"Yes. More specifically, I believe you can use magic. Only people who can use magic could be transported in this world."

"HUH!?" Natsu's eyes bulged comically and his jaw dropped to the floor. "Are you saying that I'm a mage?"

The woman frowned when she saw Natsu's expression and pinched his cheek hard. "Are you for real boy? Do you really not know that you're a mage?" she eyed him suspiciously. He shook his head. "Don't tell me you haven't heard of the existence of magic before?" The pink-haired boy freed himself from the woman's painful pinch and massaged his swollen cheek.

"I think I know what magic and a mage is, but I have no idea that they really exist and neither do I know that I am capable of using such magic or how to use it." Then lowering his voice he solemnly said, "Even if I do, right now I can't remember anything about it at all."

The woman heaved a deep sigh. "It seems the spell that had been cast on this boy is more powerful than I imagined," she muttered quietly to herself but he heard her. He was about to speak when she addressed him. "Listen my boy. Whether you want to believe me or not it's your choice. However, I must tell you that this place where you have landed right now is a very dangerous one, especially in your current situation. This _world_ is unlike any other worlds that exist in the ordinary universe." The woman dragged on, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling as if in a trance.

She continued, "This is another dimension created by the magic of two powerful individuals and only those that they allow can enter and exit freely into this world, otherwise one must pay a certain price. Many fearsome and dangerous creatures prowl and lurk in this place. They hunt and prey on unknowing individuals who get sucked into this world for food. Those unfortunate souls are called foreigners…" She pointed a wrinkled bony finger at him, her mouth curling in a wicked grin and said, "Yes… Foreigners…such as you."

A shiver went up Natsu's spine at her words as he stared at her wide-eyed. Immediately, the old woman laughed and patted his shoulder, clearly amused by his sudden stiffness. "Don't worry dear. I'm not going to eat you. If I were, I would've butchered you the first time I saw you when you were still unconscious and would not have bothered bringing you here to help and patch you up wouldn't I?" she chuckled pointing at him.

Natsu grinned at the woman and chuckled. "You're weird Granny." Noticing the old woman's glare, he shielded his head and immediately took his words back and apologized. "But anyway, thanks."

The old lady smiled. "You're welcome dearie."

"Uhm… If you don't mind me asking…" Natsu began. "Why do you know so much about this world? Are there other humans in this world? Are you a foreigner too? Why are you helping me?"

"My, my… Aren't you an inquisitive one," she chuckled. "Well, for the first question… I know a lot about this world because-"

Suddenly the woman stopped talking. She held a hand in front of him and when he was about to speak up, she pressed a finger in his lips silently telling him to keep quiet to which he obliged. She stared at the curtained windows and held her breath, listening intently. Her ancient ears perked up when she picked up a faint familiar sound. There it was again. It was a bit faint, but both of them could hear it with the eerie silence that suddenly stirred in the house. What seemed to be the sound of a thousand legs slowly crawled towards the house.

Her eyes widened and let out a stifled gasp when suddenly they heard a rapping sound from the roof. Without warning, a thin but huge black hairy leg appeared just outside the window and tapped loudly against the glass. Almost immediately, the window was littered with shadows of what appeared to be giant 12-legged insects crawling and tapping across the glass. At the sound of the slowly shattering glass, the old woman hurriedly grabbed Natsu by the wrist and dragged him outside the bedroom. After passing the small living room and kitchen, they arrived in front of a dark wooden door. The woman muttered something under her breath but he couldn't quite hear it. Before he knew it, he was pulled inside what seemed to be a spacious, immaculately clean, all-white bathroom.

Natsu turned at the woman, still shocked and bewildered from all the things that he had heard and seen. He shot her a questioning look which she ignored and instead turned to a bath tub. She turned the tap on and muttered another string of unintelligible syllables. While doing so, she dipped a finger in the tub and drew patterns in the flowing water. When she finished, a stark white wooden door intricately decorated with stained glass appeared floating in the surface of the water.

Natsu stood near the edge of the tub with mouth agape. Then the woman spoke.

"Hurry and go. The Araneaens are here. I believe they are looking for you. Go and escape through this door. Beyond this, you will enter one of the alternate worlds, in a place called the 'Void'. There you will meet the one who is called the Watchman. He is another monster who exists in _this _universe and he will do his best to make you lose your way in order to kill you and eat you. But no matter how hard he tries to outwit you, do not be fooled. The loss of your memories may be a big disadvantage, but remember that it is not the facts that the mind remembers that is most important. The mind may not remember, but the heart never forgets."

The pink-haired boy stood frowning. He felt his migraine worsen with all the information that had just been fed to him. He was about to reply but the woman spoke up again.

"If you somehow lose your way, always know that the path to safety can be found…," she said and then pointing to his heart, "…_here_." She smiled. Then shoving him towards the bath tub she barked, "Now hurry up boy before those filthy spiders get in here. I believe they've already raided the house and they're on their way here. The only reason why they're taking so long to get to this place is because this place is filled with water. Those nasty filthy things hate water."

"Aye Ma'am!" cried Natsu and he clambered inside the tub. Just as he was about to turn the knob of the white door, he turned to face the old woman and grinned, "Thanks a lot Granny!"

The old woman glared at him and struck him in the head with an angry fist. "Don't push your luck with me boy! Just because I'm helping you, does not necessarily mean that I'll forgive you for calling me by that hideous pet name!"

"But-!" he argued.

"Hirda," she sighed in defeat. The boy sure was stubborn. "Just call me Hirda."

The boy grinned widely. "Okay. Thank you again Hirda." He opened the door to the other dimension. "See you again next time!" he cried as he jumped down to the other side.

"Fool! Don't tell me you plan on getting sucked into this world again!?" she bellowed from the open white doorway at the boy who was slowly plummeting in the darkness. "And before I forget, about the Forced Amnesia…" she stopped noticing that the boy was no longer to be seen. She sighed. She had forgotten about telling the boy about his current condition.

_Oh well. As long as his feelings are strong enough about those he care for, it wouldn't be much of a problem_, she thought as she closed the white door in the tub. She muttered a few incantations and the door disappeared. Then turning to the dark wooden door behind her where loud rapping sounds could now be heard, she smirked, "Now, time to deal with these filthy little insects."

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"What on Earthland is this!?"

The two mages and an exceed stared in disbelief as they stood in front of what seemed like a dark underground cave alight with torches. Earlier, Gray had called them off in the middle of the desert to find what seemed to be a sort of a portal. It wasn't as easy as what Gray had said to just simply 'pass through' it. After several failed attempts, they were able to successfully get out of the desert by hitting the invisible 'portal' simultaneously with their magic. But what they saw at the moment was unnerving.

Now that they had their eyes adjusted to the pale flicker of the torch lights, they noticed that the cave floor was littered with bones. _Human _bones. Suddenly, they heard a loud growl from far ahead. Up ahead of them were hundreds of what seemed to be giant 12-legged spiders blocking their way. Thousands of dark obsidian eyes peered at them as they clicked their pincers menacingly.

Gray smirked. "Heh… Looks like we're not very welcome here." Then placing a fist over his open palm, he shouted, "Ice-Make Sword!"

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**Translation Notes:**

**Bakeneko-** a cat youkai (supernatural being) in Japanese Folklore, or _simply _a monster cat. Kuro of Ao no Exorcist (Rin's Familiar which resembles a black cat with 2 tails) and Madara/Nyanko-sensei of Natsume Yuujinchou are examples of bakeneko. Though in the story, Happy probably just meant "monster cat" instead of the actual bakeneko in traditional Japanese Folklore.

**Araneae- **the Order which spiders belong to, or _simply _spiders.

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**AUTHOR'S NOTES 2:**** Whew!**** That's a good 3,694 words in my word editing document! :D So, what do you think? :))) I hope this chapter's interesting enough for you... XD ****Awwwhhh.. Too bad Natsu lost his memories too!** Damn you author for erasing Natsu and Lucy's memories! Oh wait! I AM THE AUTHOR! hahaha... Any guesses what will happen next? Like it? Hate it? :))) Whatever, just tell me anyway. You can curse if you want to you know, just do NOT make it PURE cussing... hahaha! I believe in freedom of speech, as long as it's not too personal :D I would love to hear from you...

**Other notes: **Araneaens (sing. araneaen) which refer to the mythical giant, 12-legged spiders I've conjured up is based on the word "araneae". I know it's weird. Real _arānea_ only have 4 pairs of legs (8 legs all-in-all), but hey, this is just fiction. It's not that bad to think that these things are mutated spiders with their size and 12-legged-ness...right? And nope, this is no Aragog. ;) I wasn't even thinking of Harry Potter when I wrote this chapter. I only realized it when I was trying to find a name for the nasty creatures. I was greatly contemplating what Natsu's reaction would be if he were to lose all of his memories. At first, I wrote him somewhat similar to Natsu Dragion, albeit less "wimpy"? But later I figured, with or without amnesia, he'd still probably be excited fighting whatever monsters there may be.

Hmmm...There are other things I'd love to tell you, but...I guess this is it for now. I realized it **_might_** spoil the fun and surprise in the future chapters so my lips are sealed for now. Evil am I not? haha! Unless, some of you can guess what it is... Comment on it and I shall reply with a pm. Or if you're a guest, I'll answer it in the next chapter's Author's notes.

**List of OCs so far: Ulrich Aufspieben, Klaus Aufspieben, and...? :)**

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**UP NEXT... **

**Chapter 5: Magic and Powerless  
**


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